Explorations of a fantasy enthusiast

Category Archives: Events

Coming in October of 2017!

Amanda and I are thrilled to welcome this little one into the world.

A little history

We had just about given up hope that we would be able to have children. We’re both cruising through the latter half of our thirties, so time is precious. This was our last try at IVF before we moved on to adoption. Continue reading →

I’ve been absent from my website for a few months now, mostly out of discouragement and confusion, and I suppose it’s time to figure out how to carry forward.

As mentioned below, I have some problems with my eyes that put a pretty heavy damper on my visual work. In short, looking at things close up for a long time causes me to have severe double vision, motion-sickness, and blurriness. If I were to continue on my previous course of drawing for hours and hours each day, I would eventually go legally blind. For more details, feel free to ask or read my earlier posts.

Before I say anything else though, I do want to again say Thank You to everyone who supports me–both in my creative work and just in general. I really, really appreciate it.

There is one big problem that trumps any other as I make the next decisions. It is that I am, at some point in the future, going to be a father. When that will be, I don’t know, but being a father is more important to me than being an artist or author. And a key ingredient of being a parent is the ability to provide basic necessities.

Since I was 17 I have wanted to be a professional, full-time visual storyteller, and up until January of this year it filled many, if not most, of my waking thoughts.

However, in January the problem with my eyes became too much to ignore; a visual storyteller without reliable eyesight would have a remarkably difficult time providing for his children.

Much as I would love to brazenly persevere as an artist in the full-time, professional, visual creative industry, hoping to make some heroic epic of overcoming impossible odds, I am not going to do so. It is both unbalanced and irresponsible, in my case.

So, for now, I have begun the process of learning another skill set that will enable me to be a reliable provider, even if my eyes go bad. It is a skill set that I hope to use in a way that is as close to the visual storytelling industry as possible, but without putting the strain on my eyes. Come August of this year, I will be an MBA student at Carnegie Mellon, learning the art of teamwork.

So…finally…with all of the above stated, don’t think for a minute that I’m done being a creative person. There are still dozens of outlets of creativity available. Right now, I have finally fulfilled my six-year long wish of finding a good tai chi teacher (the martial art form practiced by Li, my webcomic character) and am practicing daily. There’s also the possibility of creative writing for movies and games. One more thing worth mentioning is that the technology behind virtual reality and augmented reality may provide relief for my eyes, which would enable me to get into 3D drawing and sculpting. I follow this latter option obsessively, and while it is not quite there yet, I believe it’s about three years away.

For now, in summary, I am officially a full-time MBA kind of person, and a part-time/hobbyist artist/author. Bittersweet, and excited for the future.

All this, of course, leaves the question about what I intend to do with my website, and also with my social media accounts.

First of all, if you keep your expectations at zero with me for now, then at least you won’t be disappointed if I never update the website again!

However, seeing as how the actual address of the website here is just my name, I suppose it’s general enough that it should transition into a place to share whatever new adventures await. I’m not sure what the future holds, so it’s impossible to say what will be posted here. It could simply become something like a repository for whatever hobbies I’m up to, or a regular blog with stories, or something else.

Either way, thank you for following along. Good luck and God bless in your story.

Stop the presses, peeps…

As fantasy enthusiasts, there’s a high likely hood of your having heard of epic-fantasy novelist Brandon Sanderson by now. He’s well known for the Mistborn series, Elantris, and Legion. I’m not sure, but I think every single one of his fantasy novels has hit the New York Times Bestseller list.

Well, his most well-loved series thus far is called “The Stormlight Archive” and it’s making huge waves in the world of storytelling.

When I was fifteen my friends and I randomly heard about this animated film from a great Japanese director. The film was playing only in “select theaters,” which meant we would have to leave our small town and travel to the big city.

(…a.k.a. Salt Lake City—it was huge in our heads, okay? 😉

For restless teenagers, going to see this film was more a reason to get out from under the authority of our parents than anything.

We arrived at the theater long after dark, finding our seats not long before the movie screen filled with a painted background of a misty forest and a deep voice began,

“In ancient times,

the land lay covered in forests,

where, from ages long past,

dwelt the spirits of the gods.

Back then, man and beast lived in harmony,

but as time went by, most of the great forests were destroyed.

Those that remained were guarded by gigantic beasts…

who owed their allegiance to the Great Forest Spirit,

…for those were the days of gods and demons.”

I don’t know at what point during the film I felt my life changing forever. All I know is that from the moment the film ended, I was forever obsessed with visual storytelling. (To be fair, there were three other pieces of art I saw that moved me into becoming a visual storyteller for a living, but, as far as I can remember, Hayao Miyazaki was the first one with whom I became obsessed.)

Fast forward seventeen years and I have great things in the works for next fall…(hint hint).

Miyazaki has been a constant source of inspiration throughout my life, and when the panel schedulers for Salt Lake Comic Con asked me about which panels I wanted to attend as a speaker, Miyazaki’s was one of the first I chose.

It was SUCH an honor to sit in that room speaking with other fans. The room was packed to the last row. There were a few attendees even dressed as Miyazaki characters.

Anyone could see that there were many people in the audience who knew at least as much as I do about Miyazaki films (and that is seriously saying something). And throughout the event I simply felt lucky and bewildered to be the one with the microphone, sharing my experiences, and hoping that what I was saying was somehow worth their time!

There are many rumors that when Steven Spielberg saw this film at its release at Cannes Film Festival way back in the 80’s, Spielberg called it, “…one of the greatest adventure films of all time.” And, apparently, he also said that the car chase scene (after the intro credits) is one of the best of its kind.

Give it 20 minutes or so, as the style is very, very old.

Farmer’s Market

Still drawin’ away at the Provo Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. I’m getting the hang of things, and also continually finding new ways to improve. The price is $10 per face (quite affordable, considering what you’ll pay elsewhere). Do come and take a seat!

If you are interested and don’t want to come all the way to the market only to find that the line is too long, come in the morning. People usually don’t want to commit to anything until awhile after the market starts (the market opens at 10, but I’m usually free until 11). So, I often end up just sketching in my sketchbook for the first hour or so, and then all of a sudden I have a line that lasts for up to an hour and a half after the market is over. Come early, and you’ll be sure to get a seat.

The Weekend Review

Thank you to everyone who helped make Salt Lake Comic Con 2014 a success! What a great event. Tons of costumes, tons of celebrities (including Patrick Stewart, Nathan Fillion, and Karen Gillam!), and tons of amazing art and stories.

And thank you to everyone who supported me, personally! We nearly sold out of all the large and framed prints. There’s only one left of each. And we sold around fifty medium prints and another five or so mini’s. Not too shabby.

(A note before I dive in: Some of the links in this post are what’s called “Affiliate Links.” What this means is that when you click on them and go to a page like Amazon.com, and then make a purchase within a day, Amazon sends me a small percentage of the sale price as a Thank You. It doesn’t cost you anything, but I mention it just in case you’d like to know. Thank you very much to all those who go out of their way to credit me with a referral!)

Things that went right

First of all, the best part of the event was being able to meet the people who see my work online. If you’ve ever worked in a studio all by yourself you know what an isolating experience it can be. Shaking hands with my online friends and fans, and getting to hear about what interests you was my favorite part of the experience.

We were also fairly prepared. (By the way, when I say ‘we’…I guess I’m referring to everyone who supports me. That includes my cousin and cousin-in-law, Travis and Jennie Stevens. Thank you! And everyone else who supports me in my work. Thank you! I couldn’t do this without you.) We had plenty of prints available in multiple sizes, framed, and–at the last minute–even had a graphic novella ready to go.

Finally–thanks to my friend and fellow author, Jenni James, (check out her books on Amazon!), and another fellow author, Blake Casselman, (also a Amazon author)–I had the opportunity to speak on a few panels. This was a great experience. It’s the first chance I’ve had to speak with both fantasy and sci-fi fans and also authors and artists. Both are great; it’s fun to see the difference. I notice that fans are a lot more prone to cos-play (dressing up in character) and talking about favorite movies and t.v. shows, whereas authors and artists and more inclined to talk about the down-and-dirty of the creative process. Great stuff.

Now, I did make a few small mistakes…

Lessons Learned

For those who plan on running tables at conventions (of any sort) in the future, here are a few things I learned.

Purchasing electricity is kind of a waste. I thought some juice for my computer would enable me to do some digi painting whenever the crowd was slow. And I thought it’d be fun to bring along a secondary monitor and face it towards the walkway so that people could watch some work in progress. However…I was so busy talking with people the whole time I never really had a chance. Goodbye $95!

Another thing that I wish I could have done was finish the little graphic novella long, long before the convention. This was my first time bringing all these writing/illustrating/etc. skills together, so I’m not kicking myself too hard for pulling everything off at the very last second. But still, in the future I’ll try harder to be two weeks ahead of schedule. As it was, I did indeed manage to get “The Unwanted Short Cut” finished and printed on Friday night, so it was on the table for Saturday.

Bring on the Visuals already!

Alright, alright! Enough talk. Let’s see some pics!

This be ma’ booth and ma’ amazin’ cousin-in-law helpin’ out. Many Thanks, Jennie!

(If you’re also a true fan of this show, come find me the next time you see me. If you’ve seen it all the way through more times than I have, I’ll give you a free signed print of your choice. Love to meet fellow fans!)

(Also, the movie for this show .does. .not. .exist.)

Aang cosplay at Salt Lake Comic Con 2014

Thanks for reading!

If you’ve made it this far…then I suppose you deserve to see me, my beard, and of course my buddy, Brian Hailes.

Bryan’s Comic Con Panel Schedule

Artist’s Alley Location

Also, I’m at Artist Alley booth o1. (The layout of the floor is a little confusing. I’m between the two large vendor areas sitting on a corner table right next to where y’all walk past.)

Come stop by!

Also…of note…One of my favorite actors of all time, Patrick Stewart, just agreed to come. So, if I’m not already enough for you to come…(say what?!? 🙂 )…

Update on Short Cut:

Well…technically it’s finished as of yesterday…

However, my brand new computer DIED in the process of completing the last two pages. It has only 7% power left and, due to a battery failure, will never power on again until after it gets back from the repair shop…

So…not quite sure how y’all are going to see it. I spent a long time yesterday trying to get it out of the computer. (Yes…it’s backed up…but I can’t access it without a new computer for reasons unnecessary to explain).

About this Blog

I'm a teacher, storyteller, husband, and father. My last name sounds just like "Zeus", but with a "B". This site is a place to share my (ultra messy) life with you--a journal of the journey so to say. The blog focuses around a few things, but storytelling is huge, and one day I hope to release a heroic epic tale.

Short Stories Progress

Current Rough Draft

22% Complete

650 of 3,000 words

Progress on my current rough draft. No publisher yet.

Short Stories Finished

Ready to submit to publishers

0% Complete

of 30,000 words

(Word count is just a guess!)

Short Story Touchdowns

Picked up by a publisher etc.

0% Complete

of 9,000 words

Three accepted submissions! (Word count is just a guess.)

Novella Progress

My next full-length novella

0% Complete

of 30,000 words

Like WESTLY, but new!

Epic Story

Stage 1 of 5 - Rough Layout/World Building

0% Complete

of 1,000,000 words

An epic and massive adventure. This one could take decades to finish! (Word count is just a wild guess for now.)

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On my site I occasionally use affiliate links to amazon's store page. When you use these links to purchase a book or other product I receive a small commission. It costs you nothing more than what you would pay normally and it helps to support my site. Thank you!